The demand for real estate photography and for sellers seeking out a professional to capture their home is back on the rise. Soon enough, rising professional photographers will experience the need for their expertise left and right. Real estate photography is an art in itself in which professionals who have been in the industry long enough can understand what equipment is necessary, lighting techniques to use and how to capture the property’s biggest assets. Now those looking to find their way into the market can take note of what it is those professionals do to successfully complete a real estate photoshoot. We offer some tips on what you can use and how you can set your shoot up to conquer property photography.
Use a Tripod
Photographers rely on tripods to maintain control in low-light settings. Not all rooms in a house are fortunate enough to be showered with natural light – or any light at all. Tripods can help you eliminate the vibrations when using a slower shutter speed to help stabilize the environment in dimly lit rooms.. Fix your camera up and control it by using a remote shutter or delayed timer to eliminate camera shake otherwise caused by shaky hands. Using a tripod when shooting long exposures stabilizes your camera to keep motion blurs from creeping into the shot. It effectively helps retain the perspective you’re trying to achieve. In the end, consistent images matter the most when it comes to real estate photography. Appealing to what attracts potential buyers the most to visit for a showing will come through in your images as long as you follow best practices.
Let All the Light In (or Out)
Embrace light wherever you’re able to both inside and outside the house. This is part of the home staging process where you and the homeowner will tag team to draw in as much light to help with your shots. When you’re shooting the interior, turn on all the lights – even if it is broad daylight and you think the open shutters are letting in enough light. It’s almost inevitable that there will be shadows in almost forgotten corners of the room that can ultimately make it appear smaller than it actually is. From the interior, use that tripod mentioned earlier to your advantage to even out blurry lines. Throw back the shutters and curtains to let as much natural lighting through as possible to again open up those dark corners.
When you’re shooting the exterior of the home, it’ll be worth your time to experiment with different lighting on your lens depending on the day’s weather conditions. Not every shoot will be timed appropriately or have the right amount of overcast lighting, so get to know what your equipment can do in any setting. Again, turn on the lights here for the same reason interior rooms need. Draw back the curtains and leave the lights inside the home on to also help illuminate the outside.
Use a Wide-Angle Lens
A wide-angle lens will help you capture a tight space wonderfully without having to sink yourself into a wall to grab everything. Especially in real estate photography, buyers more than likely will enjoy large spaces. The right wide-angle lens can help you shoot from wall to wall and into the depths of a room to achieve that effect. Depending on your personal budget, a tilt-shift lens might be a consideration to improve the wide-angle effect. It eliminates the distortion a wide-angle lens causes. But whatever you have to work with, wide-angle lenses range in price so that you don’t have to worry about playing in the big leagues with professionals with unlimited budgets. You’ll definitely want one of these in your arsenal.
Bring Additional Flash with You
Pack an external flash that you can use and don’t rely on what is already equipped on your camera. Standard ones are typically too weak when it comes to real estate photography and being able to cover an entire room. Depending on how large the rooms in the property are, bring three additional flashes to cover the whole area. Especially in open floor layouts where the kitchen, dining room and living room all meet, multiple flashes will help you not have to rely on natural lighting sources. You may not even have natural lighting available at all, and the worst case scenario is that you’re shooting a dark room. Whether attached to your camera or placed anywhere within the room, external flashes will greatly improve and highlight little details that wouldn’t otherwise appear.
Master Different Angles
Play with different angles in the house to maximize the space and capture areas with the most amount of light. Consider using symmetry to your advantage and if the room allows, or shoot from within the doorway to capture the whole room, giving potential homebuyers the perspective of what they will first see when entering the room. Just be sure to keep the camera straight to avoid any distortion that will likely crop up in your photos. It’ll save you editing time later on. The ideal height for real estate photography is around five feet without your shots getting distorted. If your hands are steady enough, this is easy to shoot from your perspective, but a tripod will always work wonders.
Hire an Editor
After all your hard work, you deserve a break! You’ve got the hard part out of the way and now it’s a matter of editing your photos. Luckily, just about anyone can handle this for a relatively inexpensive and short amount of time. Take a look around for photo editing services or look for fellow amateur photographers to help them get exposure into your world. PhotoBooker is one resource you can use to find talented local photographers looking to break into the industry. You can even view some of their portfolio to make your job easier looking for an assistant.
Get Booked by New Clients
Now that you have a basic understanding of what equipment and techniques you need to successfully shoot real estate, it’s time for the fun part – picking up new clients! PhotoBooker is one resource that offers photographers of all levels a seamless experience in setting up an account and finding clients in a number of industries. If real estate photography is the direction you’re wanting to take, you can add that category to your offerings and attract that set of clients. Get a collection of home and property shots you’ve taken to add to your portfolio and see your new client list start to grow. It’s that easy!
